Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said Wednesday that he planned to express Ankara's expectations for the 10% tariff imposed by the United States to be removed during his visit to the country next month, citing surplus on the Washington side.
Bolat is currently in Japan, along with officials from the government and private sector, to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
The Turkish delegation arrived in Japan for the opening of the Osaka EXPO 2025, a major commercial gathering taking place between April 13 and Oct. 13, 2025, focusing on the promotion of new technologies, exchange between nations and cultures, and addressing global challenges.
Speaking to journalists, Bolat evaluated Türkiye-Japan trade ties and potential for cooperation, while also touching upon levies introduced by the Trump administration.
He said Türkiye-U.S. relations are strong when asked by reporters about demands he would make and expectations for his U.S. visit. The minister also drew attention to the fact that the U.S. is Türkiye's second-largest trade partner after the European Union, explaining that the trade is balanced.
"It is natural for the U.S. to prioritize the countries with which it has a foreign trade deficit in the measures it takes. The U.S. has a surplus in relation to us. In that sense, we expect the 10% tariff to be removed. This will be our concrete demand," Bolat said.
"In the new period, our 'Far Countries Strategy' for the U.S. and the American continent is already being implemented intensively in the Trade Ministry for the two countries to reach the foreign trade volume target of $100 billion in the long term. The exporters' associations, Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) and Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), will endeavor to reach this foreign trade target with new actions together," he noted.
Bolat, when reminded of the evaluations that the environment of uncertainty following the decisions by the U.S. will leave permanent damage to world trade, emphasized that periodic volatility or turbulence means contraction of world trade and contraction of world national income.
"We hope that the countries that will realize this will come to the point of developing the multilateral world trade system and implementing its rules with common sense. Because when everyone closes in on themselves, when trade decreases, impoverishment will occur in the world and the world's national income will shrink," he elaborated.
"This is not a situation that benefits anyone," he added.
"Although there are fluctuations from time to time, I believe that the countries that will realize the importance of growth and trade developing together in the world will once again make these multilateral rules superior based on the World Trade Organization (WTO)."
Recalling the financial crisis in 2008 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Bolat said: "At that time, it was perceived as if the apocalypse occurred and the world would come to an end. The world economy recorded a double-digit contraction at that time, especially in Western countries, but after a while, the recovery process started again. I think we will overcome these."
Bolat also noted cooperation with Japan and said Japanese businesspeople are willing to cooperate with Turkish contracting companies, especially in the reconstruction process of Ukraine and some important infrastructure and energy projects in Africa and Asia.
He said Japan's engineering capability and financial power, combined with the production capability and quality production of Turkish contracting companies, have resulted in many important projects.
"There may be new successful collaborations like this in the reconstruction of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Ukraine and of course Syria, which are currently the favorite countries of the world contracting sector. Just a week and 10 days ago, consortium cooperation agreements were signed between Turkish contracting companies and Japanese companies for two major projects in Turkmenistan," he said.
Regarding the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between Japan and Türkiye, he said: "Negotiations on the Türkiye-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement are ongoing. This is a technical process. Delegations are in these negotiation rounds from time to time. They put forward their demands and expectations in terms of various sectors and products, but in the meantime, of course, there have been very turbulent processes."
He recalled that negotiations had to be paused, citing issues such as the pandemic and the earthquake, but highlighted Ankara's willingness in this matter continued.
"Of course, these are not processes like buying and selling products at a grocery store or a market, but important processes. The services sector, agriculture, industry and technological products, all of these are being evaluated. Twelve thousand five hundred products are being evaluated. Therefore, our stance on this issue remains unchanged. The technical delegations will come together again in the upcoming period," the minister said.
When asked about the contacts made between Japan and Türkiye regarding service exports, Bolat explained that Türkiye had $61 billion in tourism and $40 billion of logistics income last year, and that air transportation was the most important part of this.
Providing the information that a total of $115 billion of service exports were made, including education, tourism, health and software income, he said: "Our relations with Japan, which would increase in the services sector, could be in technology export revenues related to the developments in transportation, tourism, education, health tourism, software, and the artificial intelligence sector."
"It will be in the contracting (industry) income. We see that the Japanese side is also willing to work with Turkish contracting companies on this issue," he said.
